You wouldn’t believe the system I have for digital photographs. I use a numbering system because I have several thousand images and use a spreadsheet to list them all. Names just didn’t work for me and numbers keep the file name short.
Without the spreadsheet, nobody would know what it is, where it is, or who’s in it. Not all of them are people pictures, but at least if there’s a date or name to go with it I have it in there. I wish my ancestors had been that meticulous with just a pen or pencil on the back of some of them. I’m a fanatic about accuracy and organization. I think it comes from growing up with insane and/or disorganized family members. From: Kathy Meyer [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2011 4:27 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Speaking of pictures How interesting all of these opinions are! I am spending today going through my digital files on my computer, in my dropbox and on my most recent external backup hard drive. I don't have an automatic backup that automatically saves any changes or additions that I make to my hard drive so this is something I have to do every once in awhile to make sure I have everything saved in the 'right place'. I know how to organize, backup, copy files and all of that but being as human as I am, I sometimes mess up (imagine that!) For instance, if I am saving something I've scanned, my scanning software automatically saves it to the last place that I used unless I change the settings. If I'm not paying attention, I could go crazy in a couple of months trying to find it and 'knowing that I scanned that!'. Mostly though, it's because I want all of my family history information backed up in multiple places and I want it to be consistent in all of those places. Since I do not have software to automatically backup only the changes, I go through them manually. I don't mind much because I find this will bring things to my attention and I'll write notes to myself to take care of this and that. I'm doing this now with the intent of getting all of my images and documents added to my Legacy file but I know they all need to be in a good, understandable order so that I can always file them that way and so Legacy will always be able to find those images. If my computer crashes, my dropbox and external hard drive backup would be in the exact same order, which would help Legacy to find those new files in those new places. So this is bringing my mind to all of the things that can go wrong (that I can do wrong) with my filing system. It also makes me think about how someone else would be able to follow my research should I not be able to do it any longer (or as I pass it down to future generations) It makes me uncomfortable to store all of the research only in a digital way, although my plan is to scan everything that is in my paper files and source them, etc; the stuff that I didn't do way back in the beginning :-) I'm not ready to recycle all of that 'paper research' and I still print out plenty of stuff because I make notes on it, like transcriptions or explanations and source information. I type all of that into Legacy from the paper copy. Why throw it away once it's digitized? At least if I have a question, I can go back to the printed copy. I will love it when I eventually go all digital and can feel comfortable with that. For now, I still like to look at a paper copy for certain things. I know when technology changes, we should all take our old stuff and move it to the new format but not everybody will do that or has the means. Paper copies, like printed photographs, can be viewed and enjoyed by anyone whether they have the newest technology or not, or even if they have no computer at all. I'm not arguing or criticizing, just thought I'd try to explain why I can't give up my paper yet :-) I'm envious of all of you who have gone completely digital and love it. Kathy On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 2:08 PM, William Boswell <[email protected]> wrote: There has to be someone in the family that will continue to preserve the information we have compiled through the years. I have data from the 1980's that started out on 5 1/4" diskettes up to current times and if I hadn't preserved them by upgrading their formats it would be gone for good. Some originally came from paper that I had to retype because PC's didn't exist them (1970's). In that sense paper was the best media for that time. What about old 8mm and 16mm films? Try to get them converted these days. I have a bunch of them deteriorating. Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
